Chatsworth House, 2013

The house is 18th century, and, as a ducal residence, imposing. I think I posted rather more of the interior in 2009, so have a look there for more.

Best boot-scrape yet; the snake is the family emblem; also a Christian symbol of
resurrection

Our founder: Bess of Hardwick, who did the first building
at Chatsworth; except for the other red-head, she was
probably the most powerful, certainly the richest, woman
of the Elizabethan age

Entry hall, from the balcony; the Apotheosis of Julius Caesar overhead
(a distant relative? no, these people were really into Empire in those days)

State room

Great illusionary art by Jan de Vart; just about everything in
the photo is painted; in the music room

Monarch's bedroom

Ladies' toiletry center

Great way to display your Delft: must remember...

OK, I am going to skip the Rembrandts, the Titians, the Watteaus,
the Poussins, all the rest: this is Josh Reynold's portrait of
Georgiana, fifth Duchess of Devonshire; one of several

And this the very famous "stolen" Gainsborough Georgiana;
she was the great lady of her age, trend-setter both in fashion
and politics; alas, as it was said, every man in Britain was in
love with her, except her husband, the 5th Duke; it's complicated;
read Amanda Foreman's Duchess or see the Keira Knightley
movie (filmed in part at Chatsworth); not pictured: the Duke
and the Other Woman

Interesting bedding

Room for three

Library

Formal dining room; see 2009 post for interesting tidbit

Sculpture hall

Parting shot of Chatsworth...we'll be back

Chatsworth Gardens, 2013

We visited Chatsworth in 2009. It's one of the ones you want to see again. And probably again, too. I can't say it's either the best or our favorite. But, like Lanhydrock, Petworth, and Blenheim, it's one of the ones we liked best. Not the family nor home feel, like Lanhydrock, nor the art, like Petworth, nor the nation and the majesty, like Blenheim. No, although Chatsworth has great art, great history (the Dukes of Devonshire), and great architecture, it's the gardens that are of special interest: the work of two centuries of the greatest landscape architects, Grissel (Versailles), Capability Brown (nearly every English landscape of note), and Joseph Paxton (the 19th century's greatest). So we started with the gardens and first a garden tour.

The house from the Cascade/gardens side

What's left of Paxton's Conservatory and hot-house: probably the germ for the
idea of the Crystal Palace resides here

One of many, many water features

In the extensive rock garden/grotto area; all of it artificial

Ditto

A Monkey Puzzle tree in the Arboretum, with its 300 varieties;
the maze in the the distance

The grand canal and its fountain

The Cascade and its temple, from the house

From the top; designed so that every step has a different
sound...

Some of the grounds, from the Arboretum

All that remains of the original Elizabethan estate: the Deer
Stand, where the ladies could watch the gentlemen hunting
(the hill was bare then)

More of the grounds, from the carpark; not pictured...formal gardens, the "E" and
"R" on the hillsides in the distance, the sculpture arrayed all around the grounds,
and so on

Sudbury And Children's Museum

We headed north, planning on visiting a few more English sites before crossing into Scotland. First was the great house at Sudbury and its associated children's museum.

Sudbury frontal view

Another great grand staircase

Comfy comforts

China in the dining room

The insects painted on cover blemishes from the old firing
process

Beautiful great hall, particularly the ceiling

In the two-story library; note reading case
and spiral staircase in background

Embroidered jewelry box

Dorsal view

The children's museum is in one of the side
buildings; I would have enjoyed it more
had I not taken a wrong turn a visited the
large and very disturbing exhibit on child
labor in the 18th and 19th centuries...it's
hard to look at the toys of the few when so
many children never had childhoods; or
died young; I credit the Trust for thus telling
the whole story, which is not pretty

Hand-powered hobby-horse trike

Old-fashioned toys

New-fangled toys

The collection is particularly strong in 19th century
automata, machines really, which, I surmise, were less
for children than for adults and their inner children

More London Scenes, 2013

After a few days in Brighton, we returned to the Crystal Palace campground in London. We did several trips out, mostly to amuse Penelope, and saw a few more of the sights. But it was mostly about Penelope. On July 31, Mommy returned, and we spent the afternoon packing up and then having a nice dinner at the Gurkha Cottage restaurant. Going to bed that night was really the only difficult time with P during the whole visit. I think all her separation anxieties had been pent up and finally came out after Mommy came back. But then she was fine. We took daughter and grand-daughter to Heathrow the next morning, August 1, and bid them a fond farewell after a wonderful visit.

Penelope really enjoyed riding the Underground and the double decker buses

At Hamelys, the famous toy store

A madhouse inside, which we attributed to its being high season; but no, we
were told, Hamleys is always a madhouse

At BBC Broadcast House again

We got through all four or five floors of Liberty of London without  breaking
or buying anything

Another day at the V&A; a painting showing the opening of the
Crystal Palace, 1851

Illustration of Crystal Palace when first built; I'm still pretty fascinated by
the place

The Museum of Natural History--another mob scene--we'll return sometime
when it's not high season

Silence of the Dodo

Darwin presides over the Museum's great hall; Huxley at the
other end; a pretty impressive place